La Jornada: Mexico wins arbitration before the World Bank against the Silver Bull mining company

An arbitration tribunal of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an organization of the World Bank, unanimously resolved in favor of Mexico a lawsuit that the US company Silver Bull Resources, Inc. presented in June 2023 for more than $315 million.

The ruling, issued on May 29, 2026, according to a statement from the Ministry of Economy (SE), dismissed the company’s claims in their entirety and ordered it to reimburse the Mexican State a sum for the expenses and costs of the arbitration.

The case began under the then North American Free Trade Agreement. Silver Bull argued that its subsidiary Minera Metalín, incorporated in Mexico, acquired various mining concessions in Sierra Mojada, Coahuila between 1996 and 2002, and that since September 2019 a local mining cooperative, with the alleged support of state authorities, blocked the development of the project and prevented its operation.

Social conflict

The Mexican State, represented by the SE, through the General Directorate of Legal Consulting for International Trade, maintained before the court that the authorities of Coahuila acted reasonably in the face of the social conflict generated by the company itself with the residents of Sierra Mojada. He further argued that the claims were time-barred or outside the scope of the treaty, and that Silver Bull lacked the technical and financial capacity necessary to execute the project.

The court accepted the arguments of the Mexican government on several fronts. It rejected the accusation that the State promoted the blockade of the mining project and determined that the events invoked by the company occurred outside the period in which they could be analyzed with NAFTA. Based on this, the arbitration panel concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to resolve the merits of the case.

Mexico had the support of the law firms Tereposky & DeRose LLP and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. The SE indicated that the award is being reviewed to identify information that may require protection, and that once this process is concluded it will be published on the ICSID portal, where the file can be consulted.